Whatever else could be said of him, Huo Mo was the Young Master of a main Pulse and one of the Fire Spirit Clan's most gifted descendants. He carried the clan's face. Ancestor Huo Ling could not truly abandon him.
High in the sky, Ancestor Huo Ling shot Huo Mo a savage look, caring nothing for the state the boy was in. Then he turned back to Xiao Ming with a grave stare and squeezed out a mild smile.
"Our clan is in the wrong here. Still, the Heavenly Emperor has already punished these juniors. Why not grant the Fire Spirit Clan a little face and let the matter pass?"
Ancestor Huo Ling was confident. The Fire Spirit Clan might have struggled to raise successors of late, but its heritage ran long, and its old prestige endured.
Superpowers like the Northern Profound Palace and the Zi Qi Spiritual Cave held sway only over their own corners of the world. The Fire Spirit Clan's name, by contrast, rang throughout the entire Great Thousand World.
Beyond his own formidable strength, Ancestor Huo Ling also had friends far and wide. Anyone who met him would grant him at least a little face.
Unfortunately, he did not know that Xiao Ming had only just arrived in the Great Thousand World and had no real sense of the Fire Spirit Clan's power. Xiao Ming even intended to make a move against Skylaw Continent, where more than ten factions had Heavenly Sovereigns behind them.
"And if this Emperor says... he will not give you that face?"
Clearly, Xiao Ming had no wish to grant it. His quiet words sent a violent tremor through the hearts of countless experts.
His voice echoed across the sky. Cold sweat instantly soaked countless backs, and the onlookers felt the urge to flee.
Ancestor Huo Ling had been a Heavenly Sovereign for ten thousand years, and the Heavenly Emperor's presence was every bit his equal. If they fought, the sky would collapse and the earth would split, and everyone here would be dragged into it.
A collision at that level carried destruction within it.
Yet the Heavenly Sovereigns' pressure kept them from even straightening their backs. Escape was nothing but a vain hope.
Ancestor Huo Ling's eyes narrowed. He had not expected the young man to refuse him so flatly, and now he found himself riding a tiger he could not dismount.
"What do you want?"
"Since this Emperor rose from the Lower Planes into the Great Thousand World, he has met no fewer than thirty bands of robbers on the road. For every band steeped in evil, this Emperor uprooted the sect behind it and wiped out its clan."
Xiao Ming said it with a pleasant smile, but what the words revealed, along with the thick reek of blood beneath them, made Ancestor Huo Ling's frown deepen.
He had not expected Xiao Ming to come from the Lower Planes.
Had any other Heavenly Sovereign appeared today, he might have granted Ancestor Huo Ling a little face. One who came from a lower realm, however, would never relent so easily.
Every cultivator who ascended from below had been among the very strongest of his own plane. Back home, others gave face to them, never the reverse.
Moreover, those who ascended knew little of the Great Thousand World's powers. This Heavenly Emperor might never even have heard his name.
And if the man had never heard his name, then asking him for a little face had been as good as saying nothing.
Naturally, Xiao Ming's words had nearly exhausted Ancestor Huo Ling's patience as well. His eyes turned hawk-sharp and locked onto Xiao Ming.
"So you mean to exterminate my Fire Spirit Clan?"
"It has not come to that. The Fire Spirit Clan is no evil faction. With tens of thousands of members, a few rotten apples are only natural. Cripple the cultivation of Huo Mo and his protector, then compensate this Emperor with two billion drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid and five Divine Flames with a place on the ranking, and this Emperor will let bygones be bygones."
Ancestor Huo Ling was so angry he nearly laughed. Two billion drops of Sovereign Spiritual Liquid meant little to him, but Divine Flames with a place on the ranking were extraordinarily hard to come by. Even the Fire Spirit Clan held only a limited number.
Many of them had fought alongside the clan's great predecessors for years on end. Their spirits had long since fused with the clan, until each was almost an avatar of the expert who had once wielded it. They were the Fire Spirit Clan's true foundation.
Even the clan's most outstanding descendants could not always win their recognition. Yet Xiao Ming had opened his mouth and demanded five. Did he think they were cabbages?
Ancestor Huo Ling refused flatly. "Impossible! This old man will never accept such terms!"
"This old man has long heard that every supreme expert who breaks free of the Lower Planes is a talent beyond compare. Until now, this old man has never had the chance to cross hands with one. Since fate has brought us together today, this old man would like to ask for your guidance."
Even as he spoke, a burst of strange-hued flame surged up from his body and gathered in his palm.
Shit, they're really going to fight!
Countless experts stared at that strange-hued flame in horror. They could feel it. Once it came down, everything within tens of thousands of miles would become a sea of fire in an instant, and not a single living thing inside would survive.
"Oh? Why didn't you just say so earlier?"
Xiao Ming rose high into the sky and studied the strange-hued flame with keen interest. He could sense that its quality surpassed the Greenstone Azure Flame he had obtained earlier.
"This Emperor has also long heard of the Fire Spirit Clan's mastery of fire. Today, this Emperor will see it for himself."
"As you wish!"
Ancestor Huo Ling murmured the words under his breath, but he did not dare grow careless. His hands snapped into seals. The strange-hued flame before him flared with vast firelight and rose like one blazing sun after another, each one pulsing with utter annihilation.
Thrum!
The suns shuddered. A vast tide of Spiritual Energy rippled outward and shook the land.
Violet Cloud Lord and the others watched the suns intently, and their faces changed drastically. A single stray thread of that crimson energy could wipe them out.
The Fire Spirit Clan's Ancestor truly lived up to his ten thousand years as a Heavenly Sovereign. Even a mere avatar of his was this overwhelming.
While Violet Cloud Lord and the others were still reeling, the blazing suns fused into a fiery red bronze bell. Countless strange patterns were engraved across its body.
"Fire Spirit Bell!"
At Ancestor Huo Ling's low shout, the bronze bell slammed straight down. It plunged through the air and swallowed Xiao Ming in a single gulp.
The giant bell hung motionless in the sky. From within came the faint roar of countless burning flames.
"This Fire Spirit Bell is born of this old man's natal flame. It has been tempered further with a spark of spiritual light drawn from countless flames of our clan, gathering the might of ten thousand fires. Even a Heavenly Sovereign who falls inside will be refined." Ancestor Huo Ling's deep voice resounded within the bell, edged with pride.
"It is indeed extraordinary."
Xiao Ming nodded in agreement. Nothing about him suggested that he was the one being roasted on all sides by raging fire.
"However, this Emperor also has a flame he would like you to appraise!"
The instant his voice faded, the countless fire patterns covering the bell began to crack apart, fast enough for every eye to follow.
Wisps of fine, brilliant flame had crept out at some unnoticed moment. Wherever they passed, the vast red glow melted away like the last of the winter snow.
Ancestor Huo Ling's pupils contracted slightly.
Fwoom!
The brilliant flames streamed out without end, and in moments, they had swallowed the entire red bell.
Then the fire surged higher. Though the bell was itself made of flame, it swiftly melted into liquid and ran away in molten streams.
Uproar broke out across the land. A chill of dread ran through countless experts. No one had imagined that a clash between two Heavenly Sovereigns would reveal who held the upper hand so quickly.
Even they could see that, of the two, the Heavenly Emperor's flame was by far the more domineering.
Ancestor Huo Ling, a master at playing with fire, had lost to a young junior in his own art.
Avatar or not, he had lost!
Ancestor Huo Ling stared at the sight for a moment. Then he regarded the unscathed Xiao Ming with a complicated expression and spoke in a low voice. "What is that flame called?"
"Emperor Flame."